Soul Shift: Seen to Unseen / Message #4

September 2, 2012

Soul Shift: Seen to Unseen / Message #4

Romans 4:16-25

Scott Howard

How can we be people of Faith? 

How can we shift from the Seen to the Unseen?

·         Believe!

“Therefore the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring---not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham.  He is the father of us all.  As it is written, ‘I have made you a father of many nations.’  He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed---the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.  Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’”  Romans 4:16-18

Abraham’s faith was not in the promises, but in God who made the promises.  Abraham’s belief was accompanied by great action.  He had as much belief in what is not physically seen as in the things that are seen.

·         Trust!

“Without weakening in his faith, he [Abraham] faced the fact that his body was as good as dead---since he was about a hundred years old---and that Sarah’s womb was also dead.  Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.”  Romans 4:19-21

Trust says God is able, and I am NOT able.  Sometimes we try to see what we can do to “help” God fulfill his promises, but that can make things worse, and we can only do so much.  You may have done all you know to do, but there’s still “the Unseen;” there’s still what God can do.  Trust says, “I can’t, but God can!”

·         Confide!

“This is why ‘it was credited to him [Abraham] as righteousness.’  The words ‘it was credited to him’ were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness---for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.  He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.”  Romans 4:22-25

Be confident in the Unseen, in what God can/will do.  Since God makes promises to us, his promises will come true.  That means if it’s going to happen, but we cannot see how, and anything we do won’t “help” it along, then it MUST be that God has an unseen plan!

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see.” 

--Hebrews 11:1

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” 

--Proverbs 3:5